There is more to the closing down of the Dominican Public Electricity Corporation (CDEEE), than just liquidating the staff. The Presidency issued Decree 342-21, on 16 February 2021, declaring the liquidation of the CDEEE to be a priority, transfering its attributions, faculties and functions to the Ministry of Energy and Mines and creating and integrating the liquidation commission to oversee the process “with the greatest possible speed.”
Electricity expert Bernardo Castellanos warned on Sunday, 30 May 2021 that the CDEEE would be transferring the 38 energy purchase contracts to the government-owned power distributors. Castellanos warns that some of these were signed at very high costs and that this could result in a forced increase in electricity billings for Dominicans served by EdeSur, EdeNorte and EdeEste. So far, the CDEEE has been absorbing the difference between the purchase price and the sale to the government-owned distributors. Castellanos was interviewed for “Así Vamos, con Héctor Guzmán”, on TRA Teleradio América.
The electrical engineer forecasts that the Superintendency of Electricity will be authorizing the tariff increase to cover the deficit of the power distributors. He says the distributors are presently buying at US$0.11.5 cents per kilowatt and will be obliged to honor contracts of up to US$0.20 cents per kilowatt. He explains what is behind all this is a way to justify the transfer of the power distributors to the private sector.
Castellanos criticized the present state of the electricity sector. He called the electric sector “unviable” due to the high losses and the reduction of investment in the sector. He estimated losses at 38% and the lull in investment at around 74% or US$62 million in 2020. He said this has been reduced in 2021 to US$15 million. He says the sector needs to attract sustained investment of around US$1.5 billion.
Engineer Castellanos criticized the about-face he says Antonio Almonte Reynoso has made in his positions. He explained that when Almonte was an energy spokesperson for the Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) when it was in the opposition, he had called for the deficit to not be greater than 15%, with more significant investment and less current spending. “But by magic, Antonio Almonte and Andrés Astacio (the latter vice-president of power utilities and secretary of the Unified Council of the Power Distributors), have announced that they are studying the possibility of increasing the electricity tariff to the population,” he denounced.
He said he is seeing an increase in the payroll and a decrease in investment. “They are doing the opposite of what they proposed to reduce the deficit of the distributors,” he stresses.
He considered that the PRM never proposed in the electoral campaign to privatize the electricity sector as they are now suggesting, which in his opinion is the same as taking a card out of the sleeve in a poker game. “They are doing it in dribs and drabs, telling society that it is a fait accompli,” he told N Digital.
“In no part of the PRM’s government program does a public-private alliance or trust in the electric sector appear or the elimination of the CDEEE. They only spoke of reorganization,” he said.
On the other hand, Castellanos says that the government has sent clear signals that it intends to transfer Punta Catalina to the private sector. He said the announced Punta Catalina trust is nothing more than a way of justifying its transfer to the private sector through a public-private alliance, including the distributors and the power generating companies.”
He insisted Punta Catalina not become a trust until a certainty is had as to how much was invested and the coal-fired power plant’s current value.
Meanwhile, Energy Minister Antonio Almonte clarified that the shutdown of the CDEEE requires that Congress revoke Art. 138 of the General Electricity Law 125-01.
Read more in Spanish:
N Digital
El Dia
Listin Diario
Listin Diario
El Caribe
30 May 2021